Earlier in April, Nintendo announced that it had experienced a security breach when it came to user Nintendo Accounts. The breach was initially pinpointed to those who had used their legacy Nintendo Network ID (NNID) to sign in to their Nintendo Switch. In their initial announcement, the company noted that there were about 160,000 accounts that were affected, but, now, weeks later, the number of accounts has nearly doubled to 300,000 accounts. Nintendo attributes this increase to the investigation that it has undertaken in light of the initial detection.
The issue came to light when an increasing number of users on the switch reported that their accounts were being used to make purchases that owners were not aware of. If you have a credit card or Paypal account linked to your Nintendo account, it would be prudent to check the transactions that have been done on the account in the past weeks. Users who have been compromised are also getting sign-in notifications from unknown devices via email.
You can help secure your Nintendo Account by enabling 2-Step Verification.
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 9, 2020
Nintendo of America tweeted for users to activate their two factor authentication (2FA) for logins out of the blue prior to the initial announcement. However, with the increase in the number of accounts being compromised, it is increasingly more evident that if you have a Nintendo Account, you’d best reset your password and activate 2FA. Otherwise, you’re risking unauthorised purchases via your linked credit card or Paypal account. In addition to unauthorised purchases, sensitive data such as date of birth and more can be viewed by bad actors.
Nintendo’s latest console, the Nintendo Switch, has put the company on the map again as a serious contender in the gaming console market with over 5 million consoles sold to date. The company is sticking to its guns saying that less than 1% of its users are affected. However, with investigations ongoing, users are advised to take precautions.
Video games are a big part of our lives. The industry continues to grow and fascinate anyone who cares to look at its stats. In Asia, the industry grows at a pace that is quite unprecedented.
The only thing missing in the grander scheme of things in Malaysia is a big gaming convention that we can liken to E3 in the United States, or Comic Con, or PAX East, or even Gamescom. Well, that was about to change later in the year with Gamescom Asia happening in Singapore from the 16th to 18th of October 2020.
So far, they have been adamant about holding the event in 2020. The mounting pressure that surrounds COVID-19 situations globally though is not encouraging. That is why they have made the decision to postpone the event instead to 2021.
The new dates are 14th to 17th of October in 2021. Yes, it is happening in the final quarter of 2021, about a year after the 2020 dates. It may not be a bad thing though. We are seeing large improvements over the COVID-19 situation currently and would most likely see a large improvement in the coming year with vaccine’s produced and circulated.
While we are going to not see the world’s biggest convention coming to Asia this coming October, we remain excited for the upcoming Gamescom Asia happening next year October 2021. They have reported that the participations and requests for Gamescom Asia 2020 has been quite overwhelming. They also mentioned that there will be AAA title publishers present in the Asia leg of their convention. It will be a world class event, they say. We are hopeful that we would see it too.
Gamescom Asia 2021 will be held, as mentioned, from the 14th to 17th of October in Singapore still. The convention will be housed in Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre; that is right in the heart of Singapore. For more information on Gamescom Asia, you can head over to their website.
The COVID-19 situation is getting better all around the world. Thanks to the collective efforts of the World Health Organisation, global governments, and even health institutions, the pandemic is mostly under control. There is still yet a viable vaccine in sight yet though. In that sense we still must take precautions against the disease that is the COVID-19.
That is also why plenty of global sporting events are either cancelled or postponed. One such event is the Olympics that is set to happen in Japan. Another event that was postponed is Acer’s Predator League Asia Pacific Finals that is supposed to happen in the Philippines.
On that front, Acer was going to postpone their biggest eSports tournament for Asia Pacific to the end of this year 2020. The conditions are not encouraging enough for the global eSports tournament to happen this year unfortunately. They have decided that the event is going to be postponed to 2021 over health and safety concerns of both fans and participants.
To be specific the tournament will happen at Spring 2021. The location has not changed, nor the participating teams. The same teams that qualified in their respective regional Predator Leagues in 2020 will be the teams that competes in Acer’s Asia Pacific Predator League 2020/2021. The price pool remains at US$ 400,000 too.
There are no confirmed or specific dates just yet from Acer though. When they say Spring 2020, that is in the span of March until June in 2021. These dates could also be affected by changes in health procedures and other changes.
For Acer’s Predator League 2020, they have sold about 20,000 tickets to date. Ticket holders can hold on to their tickets for the postponed event and it will still be eligible for the upcoming 2020/2021 dates. Either that, or ticket holders can claim for a refund for their tickets.
Still, we do hope that the global pandemic that is the COVID-19 would have been completely eradicated by then. Of course, that is a little far-fetched of an idea. Still, we remain hopeful since every other person is focused on finding a solution to the pandemic.
The Asia Pacific Predator League 2020/2021 scheduled to run in Spring 2021 will feature 17 regions’ representatives in the Asia Pacific continent. The tournament will be held in Philippines as planned for the Predator League 2020. For more information on the Predator League 2020/2021, you can head over to Acer Predator’s social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
Minecraft is a huge game. Say what you want about Minecraft and its weird boxy graphics that you cannot take seriously; the game is one of the most popular video games you can find today. Its online community is also one of the biggest in the gaming community. Plus, they are all very nice people and also very creative. There are people who make a living out of building things in the Minecraft game world. Someone did a measurement of the map size of Minecraft and it is multiple times the size of GTA’s game world. It is that big, it is not a child’s game.
There is more to Minecraft than meets the eye though. The sandbox platform is not just about players going in, gathering materials and then building large, mega-buildings to be shown off to the internet. There is some adventure involved around the game as well. There are elements of survival within the game. All these was always available for PC gamers, and they create their own Minecraft journey.
For beginners then, the game can be quite overwhelming. The vast map, the emptiness of the maps, the endless possibilities. While plenty of gamers enjoy that, there are some that would like more curated approaches to their game storyline. They prefer to indulge in stories rather than creating them. That is the idea behind Minecraft Dungeons, another original project from Minecraft’s developers, Mojang Studios.
We have not had any experience with the game itself, if we are being honest. So we can only comment on what we have seen so far. So far, it looks like dungeon hack-and-slash that we are plenty used to. Minecraft Dungeons can easily be mistaken for a boxier version of Diablo or Torchlight. Those are brilliant games, by the way.
This is not a completely solo experience though. You can co-op with your friends to get to the end of the Minecraft Dungeons journey. We are not entirely sure if there is cross platform playability just yet. Still, playing games online with your friends is a part of socialising these days.
Source: Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
While Minecraft was created for PC, Minecraft dungeons is made available for all platforms including Playstation 4 thanks to the co-development of the game with Double Eleven. Double Eleven is the team behind the ever so popular Goat Simulator by the way. The online aspect of Minecraft Dungeon is also worked by Double Eleven if you must know. For your information too, Double Eleven has a Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia studio and they are looking for talents to join them for future projects. You can find out more from their website.
Minecraft Dungeons is available now for PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4. On PC, you can get your hands on the new title on Microsoft Store for MYR 78. There are at least three planned DLCs for the game to be announced on a later date.
Lenovo Legion should not be an unfamiliar name for gamers by now. Personally, the Lenovo Legion Notebook PCs that came out last year are some of the ones that stand out most in the gaming notebook PC market. They are also some of the most well-built notebook gaming PCs in the market in our humble opinions.
The design language of the 2019 line-up of Lenovo Legion products hits the spot, we feel in balancing the powerful look of a gaming notebook and a sleek looking mobile productivity machine. They look industrial, durable, and clean. So we are quite glad to see that design language continue in the 2020 line-up of Lenovo Legion products.
Lenovo Legion 7i
We start with the most powerful notebook PC in their line-up for 2020, the Lenovo Legion 7i. Not the Y700 series anymore this time, just a simple number and letter marking its CPU variant according to Lenovo. The good part is that it simplifies naming and recognition of the notebooks. To be fair though, Lenovo’s line-up is not as extensive as the likes of ASUS, so confusion should be limited in the first place.
Still, the Lenovo Legion 7i is the brand’s flagship portable gaming rig that packs the power of Intel’s most powerful mobile CPU, the 10th Generation Intel Core i9 (up to). That is paired to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super GPU for a maxed out performance while gaming. While the hardware you can find within the all-aluminium body is testament enough that this is a serious piece of kit for both LAN parties and any CPU and GPU intensive work conditions, it does not stop here.
Source: Lenovo
The Lenovo Legion 7i also has an impressive array of RGB lights on the keyboard and around the outer shell to let anyone else in the room know that you are running a serious rig. You control the lighting effects via Corsair’s trusty iCUE RGB software built into the Lenovo Legion 7i. It is individual LED lights on the keyboard too, so you can have different colours on each keys if you want. Or, if you are like me, keep everything lighted to a single colour (a waste of good RGB I know).
To keep things cool, Lenovo developed something they call Coldfront 2.0. While that sounds like a bunch of gimmicks, it is actually a very clever solution to cool the CPU and GPU for optimised performance. Heat is the enemy, here, you get the idea. There is no way around the fact that the space on a notebook PC is very limited and therefore airflow is highly restricted in these conditions. Lenovo’s way of managing this is a combination of clever fan management from the software and designing more efficient heat sinks and pipes in optimised locations within the aluminium body.
Source: Lenovo
It sounds plenty easier said that done though. The new Vapor Chamber (heat pipes) that Lenovo developed for the Lenovo Legion 7i is supposedly larger than before, which is a challenge around the restricted space of the notebook PC. Still, they managed it so that there is more efficient heat transfer from the CPU and GPU to the cooling fans and ducts. All this while managing to keep two NVMe M.2 slots for two ultra-fast SSD and one SATA slot for maximum storage.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
All these is nothing though if you are seeing everything through a terrible display. Some of the previous Lenovo Legion notebook PCs have gotten a few negative comments when it comes to the display because plenty of them use TN (Twisted Nematic) panel displays. Those panels are known for horrible colour accuracy, washed out images, and even worse colour contrast. They are very fast though, pushing 300Hz in refresh rates in some cases and easily push 1ms in response time.
The progression in IPS (In-Plane Switching) technology though has allowed Lenovo to take advantage of the more colour accurate displays on the Lenovo Legion 7i with Full HD resolution with up to 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time (unreal, we know). Those, along with 1000% of sRGB colour gamut for super accurate colours when you need to do all your Adobe Photoshop work or Adobe Premiere Pro colour grading work.
Smarter Gaming
Lenovo has always looked for ways to innovate in the PC market. After all, it is a very saturated market with too many players to name in the first place. Staying at the front of the market with new innovations then is very important.
For the Lenovo Legion gaming line-up they have developed a new Lenovo Vantage software that allows users to have full control over each aspect of Lenovo’s gaming rigs. You can change the fan behaviour from the software itself. You can technically set maximum fan speed, and even more overclocking or undervolting settings within the software. Of course, if you know what you are doing with a PC, you might get more out of this than Lenovo’s own default settings for yourself.
With the Vantage also comes Lenovo’s new Q-Control 3.0. This is to control both the fan speed and overclocking on the Legion notebook PCs. It is designed to quickly switch between different thermal profiles to either keep the PC quiet, or to maximise cooling efforts.
Ther have also tuned the displays on the new Lenovo Legion notebook PC line-up. The new IPS panels means better colour accuracy. Lenovo’s very own Legion Visual software optimises the graphics and colours even more by tuning the colours for optimum usage in different brightness settings and use cases.
They even made the new Legion products last even longer than before with 80Wh of battery pack now. That means that Lenovo’s Legion gaming rigs can last up to 8 hours on a single charge or more, depending on hardware power requirements and others. 8 hours is a long time for any gaming PC though.
Lenovo Legion 5Pi
There is a few variants of the Lenovo Legion 5 series that is coming into Malaysia and we, of course, start with the most powerful one. This is also Lenovo’s second most powerful Notebook PC that is coming to Malaysia. As the ‘i’ in the naming scheme suggests, this is an Intel powered gaming Notebook PC. It has a 10th Generation Intel Core i7 (up to) paired to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (up to).
While not as powerful as the super powerful Lenovo Legion 7i, the Lenovo Legion 5Pi is more powerful than plenty of gaming notebooks of its class. You get some really nice features on the Lenovo Legion 5Pi still too. There is a 4-zone RGB still on the keyboard of the Legion 5Pi notebook PC to show that this is not just a normal Lenovo Legion 5 series. Even the top clam housing the display has a slightly different design with the Legion ‘Y’ Logo front and center of the clam.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
The display is also a Full HD IPS panel with 100% sRGB colour gamut to make short work of Adobe Photoshop. Along with 144Hz refresh rate and up to 1ms response time, this could be the perfect rig if you are on a slightly lower budget but still need a primary notebook PC to work with in LAN parties or at work. Again, I would tone down the RGB for myself, a matter of preference.
Lenovo Legion 5i
The Lenovo Legion 5i is technically the Lenovo Legion 5Pi, but a little toned down. As the naming moniker suggests too, it is an Intel device. Powered by Intel’s 10th Generation 10nm Core i7 (up to), this thing is still no slouch. In place of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super though is a slightly less powerful NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti. The GTX 1660Ti is still powerful stuff to work with though. It is more than enough in most cases to deal with AAA games, Adobe Photoshop and 1080p video editing on Adobe Premiere Pro.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
For better colour accuracy for those software too, the Lenovo Legion 5i gets a nice IPS panel with 100% sRGB colour gamut like its more powerful and premium Legion 5Pi at 144Hz and up to 1ms response time. This is the perfect balance between raw power and budget. It does not feature the same front and center logo design like the 5Pi, but you still get an all-aluminium body build and the same Legion design of the Legion 7i
Lenovo Legion 5
And then there is the AMD offering that we also saw from AMD’s presentation for the APAC region yesterday. The Lenovo Legion 5. Yes, just the number ‘5’ without any thing like an ‘a’ or ‘R’. There is a small caveat with the AMD version for now though. The Lenovo Legion 5 only comes with up to an AMD Ryzen 5-4500H CPU.
There is no mention anywhere yet on whether or not we will see an AMD Ryzen 7 or even the Ryzen 9 variant pop up in either the Legion 5i or the Legion 7i, but we remain hopeful. Still, the Ryzen 5-4500H is AMD’s latest 4000 series CPUs that has proven in value and power. Paired to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, the AMD powerhouse should still impress in games and even for workflow, especially when it comes to CPU intensive software like Adobe’s Premiere Pro.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
At the same time you only get 8GB in RAM, but you can always add another one RAM stick into the notebook PC or upgrade the one that is already in the PC. Lenovo encourages you to do that apparently. They even have a guide to help you do that on your own on their website.
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i
A top-end and a mid-range has to be competed with an entry-level. After all, accessibility to the products becomes a concern sometimes when it comes to gaming. That is the idea of the IdeaPad Gaming 3i (no pun intended).
The Lenovo IdeaPad does not have the Legion branding moniker. It is still no slouch though. You still get Intel’s latest 10th Generation Core i7 (up to). You also can spec it with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 if you want and it will be the perfect companion for both work and play on a budget.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
The 15-inch display is still a Full HD resolution display and fast enough for plenty of games. You get up to 120Hz in refresh rate, which is more than enough for most use case and games. It also comes with some Lenovo Legion design work within the body. That means bigger thermal pipes for better thermal performance under load too.
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i
Their product range is not just limited to notebook PCs though. Although that is the current most popular platform, nothing beats the power of a desktop tower set up. Lenovo has that answer too with the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i that is set to launch in Malaysia later in the year.
They did mention a more powerful Lenovo Legion Tower 7i too, but unfortunately that is not coming to Malaysia. Still, the Legion Tower 5i is a powerful gaming PC tower than anyone can appreciate. You get two variants of the Lenovo Legion Tower 5 series technically. You can spec your’s with either an AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPU or a 10th Generation Intel Core CPU. You can also pick from a variety of GPUs up to an NVIDIA GeForce 2070 Super if you want.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
While it is a tower, it is not that big of a thing and is designed to be something that is small enough and light enough to be as portable as possible. In this case, you can even take it out to a LAN party alongside a small monitor and keyboard and still get the benefit of gaming on a proper desktop rig.
Lenovo Legion Phone – the Future of Gaming Smartphones
Lenovo has not been in the smartphone game for a while. That is since they took over with Motorola. They did make some compelling smartphones and tablets in the past though.
Earlier in the year there are rumours surrounding Lenovo jumping back into the smartphone scene with a gaming focused smartphone. They dub it the Lenovo Legion Phone. There are no confirmation of specifications or renders yet about the anticipated device. We do have confirmation from Lenovo’s executives regarding the existence of the device and that we will see it somewhere in the late 2020.
There are still no confirmed dates on the device so far. The only thing we got from them is; “Lenovo will launch a Legion gaming phone in 2020. Please stay tuned for more information”. Which is not too much to work with. We are excited to see ROG Phone II, Black Shark II, and Razer Phone rival though.
Price and Availability
The Lenovo Legion 7i, Lenovo Legion Tower 5i, and Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i will be coming later in 2020. There are no confirmed prices for the three models mentioned yet too. We are expecting the Lenovo IdeaPad 3i to hover somewhere between MYR 2,500 and MYR 3,500 price point though.
The Lenovo Legion 5, Lenovo Legion 5i, and Lenovo Legion 5Pi will be available in Malaysia June 2020 onward. The AMD based Lenovo Legion 5 will be the most affordable option with prices starting from MYR 3,599. The Lenovo Legion 5 with Intel’s Core i5 will start from MYR 4,199. Of course, you can get that with an Intel Core i7 too. The top-of-the-line Lenovo Legion 5Pi will set you back at least MYR 6,399.
Alienware saw a return to the spotlight last year thanks to a large, power packed champion: the Area 51m. The new form factor paired with a major redesigned pushed the Alienware offerings into the spotlight. The new Legend design language brought a sense of imposing elegance to the new offerings which enhanced their offerings.
This year, Alienware is continuing with their Legend design and is packing more performance into their products.
Alienware Area 51m R2
The Alienware line up continues to be spearheaded by the Area 51m R2. This year’s Area 51m R2 comes in the same larger than life form factor as last year. However, it has a slimmer silhouette coming in at 1.7 inches at its thickest and 1.089 inches at its thinnest. It’s 15.85 inches by 12.565 inches in size and comes in at only 4.7kgs at its most specc’d out. However, the slimmer body of the R2 isn’t lacking in ports it comes with 2 USB 3.2 ports, 1 USB 3.2 with powershare, 1 card reader, 1 Thunderbolt 3 Port, an Alienware Graphics Amplifier Port, an HDMI port, 1 Audio Out, a microSD card reader and a global headset port.
The Alienware Area 51m R2 comes with a 17.3-inch display with options for Full HD and UHD panels. These display panels are also available with NVIDIA G-SYNC and come with up to 300Hz refresh rate. It also has options for Tobii Eyetracking. The panels support 100% Adobe RGB gamut and RGB gamut where compatible. Otherwise, the panels cover 72% of the NTSC gamut.
The new refresh also comes equipped with 10th generation Intel Core i7 or Core i9 processors for power. This is complemented with up to 64GB of RAM. Storage wise, the Alienware Area 51m R2 comes with options for single storage, dual and even RAID0 Plus configurations of up to 4TB. Graphics wise, the laptop is available with the AMD Radeon RX 5700M, NVIDIA GeForce GTX1660 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER.
Alienware m15 & m17
Alienware’s m15 and m17 are also getting a new refresh. The new offerings retain the Legend design language but come with more power so users can be productive and game on the go. They also come in the same, familiar size that users have already fallen in love with.
The Alienware m15 and m17 both come with the latest generation of Intel Core i processors with i5, i7 and i9 options to choose from. They also come packed with gaming and graphical prowess with the choice of AMD RADEON RX5500M or NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX1650 Ti, GTX 1660 Ti, RTX 2060, RTX 2070, RTX 2070 SUPER and RTX 2080 SUPER. They also come with up to 32GB of RAM. This is complemented with up to 4.5TB of storage in either single, RAID0 or RAID0 Plus configurations.
The displays on the Alienware m15 and m17 are similar to the Area 51m options. The only difference would be in the m15’s smaller 15.6-inch size and an additional OLED option for UHD resolution. Both the m15 and m17 have options that include Tobii Eyetracking technology too. They also share a similar number of ports as the Area 51m.
Alienware Aurora R11
Together with the laptops, Alienware is also refreshing the Aurora with the latest Intel Core i processors. The R11 will be coming with options with the Core i5, Core i7 and Core i9. It comes with options for up to 32GB of RAM in both 2933MHz and 3200MHz flavours depending on your performance needs. It will also be sporting up to 4TB of storage. These will be available in Single, Dual and Intel Optane configurations.
On the graphics front, the Aurora R11 will be able to handle single and dual GPU configurations. Alienware is offering NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards ranging from the GTX1650 to the RTX2080 Ti and AMD options ranging from the RADEON 5600 to the RADEON VII for single graphics card configurations. For dual graphics configurations, users can choose from the RTX 2070 SUPER with NVLink SLI, RTX 2080 SUPER with NVLink SLI and RTX 2080 Ti with NVLink SLI.
Being a tower, the Aurora R11 comes with a a slew of ports including a headphone jack/line out port, microphone/line in port, 2 USB Type A v3.2, 1 USB Type A v3.2 with Powershare Technology and a USB Type-C v3.2 with Powershare technology on the front of the tower. On the back, there are 6 USB Type A v2.0, 1 USB Type-C v3.2, 2 USB Type A v3.2 and various surround sound ports on the back. It has an RJ-45 Killer E3000 Gigabit ethernet port as do all the Alienware offerings.
Pricing & Availability
The Alienware Area 51m R2 will be available globally starting on June 9, 2020 starting at USD$3,049.99 (MYR13,202.69).
The m15 and m17 will be available globally starting on May 21, 2020. The Alienware m15 is priced starting at USD$1,499.99 (MYR6,493.10) while the m17 will be priced from USD$1,549.99 (MYR6,709.54).
The Auroro R11 wil be available from May 13, 2020 with prices starting at USD$1,129.99 (MYR4,891.26). Alienware mentioned that there will be additional configurations available starting May 28, 2020 for as low as USD$879.99 (MYR3,809.12).
Only the m15, m17 and Aurora R11 will be available in Malaysia. The m15 R3 will be available starting 22 May, 2020 with prices starting at MYR9,899. The m17 R3 will be going on sale at the same time with prices starting at MYR12,199 while the Aurora R11 will be available starting 30 June, 2020 with prices starting at MYR6,999.
Dell’s gaming line up has always been one the company’s most compelling offerings when it comes to budget gaming systems. The Dell Gaming line up inherits some of the DNA of the older Alienware devices before the brand adopted its new Legend Industrial design.
This year, the line up continues to have the sleek build that we’re familiar with in Dell gaming laptops. This year’s comes a little sleeker with the Dell G3 15 coming in at 21.6mm thick and 365.5mm by 254mm in size. It’s also slightly lighter weighing at least 2.34kgs. The G5 15 comes in a little bit thicker at 24.5mm while maintaining the other dimensions.
This year, the G3 15 and G5 15 are both getting refreshed with the latest generation Intel Core i processors with options for the Core i5 and Core i7. The laptops also have options for NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards ranging from the GTX 1650 Ti to the RTX 2060. The Dell G5 15 comes with an additional configuration with support for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q design.
On the display side of things, the Dell G3 15 and the Dell G5 15 come with a 1080p, Full HD panel. These panels have configurations supporting 60Hz, 144Hz and 300Hz refresh rate. Both models come with single and dual storage configurations supporting up to 1.5TB of memory out of the box.
Connectivity wise, the G3 15 and G5 15 both support WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth. There is an additional option for WiFi 6 which will be available at a premium. Both models also have different configurations for ports. You can look at the official specifications for detailed information.
The Dell G5 15 comes with a chassis with 12 zone RGB lighting. This is not available on the G3 15 or models of the G5 15 with the RTX 1650 Ti.
Pricing & Availability
The Dell G3 15 will be available globally starting on May 21, 2020. Prices will start at USD$779.99 (MYR3,375.50).
The Dell G5 15 will be available starting the same day with prices starting from USD$829.99 (MYR3,591.88).
Malaysia will only be getting the Dell G5 15 for now. It will be available starting 26 May, 2020 with prices starting at MYR4,499.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) is kicking off a new initiative called Play At Home for their PlayStation community. The new initiative comes in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing number of countries going into lockdown to curb the spread of the disease. Play At Home is an initiative from the company to reward their players for staying indoors and also to ensure the sustainability of a vibrant, growing indie gaming development.
The first part of the new initiative is to keep gamers entertained indoors – in the most literal way, to encourage gamers to Play At Home. To this end, PlayStation is making Unchartered: The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey available for free on the PlayStation Store.
Unchartered: The Nathan Drake Collection collects three entries from the acclaimed Unchartered series from Naughty Dog – Unchartered: Drake’s Fortune, Unchartered 2: Among Thieves and Unchartered 3: Drake’s Deception which have been remastered for the PlayStation 4. Journey, on the other hand, is an indie adventure game by Thatgamecompany which conveys a simple, yet profound message as gamers travel towards a mountain in the distance. The critically acclaimed game brought a new dimension to game play with players able to interact with each other but without words.
The games will be available to download for free starting 15 April, 2020 at 8PM (PDT) until May 5, 2020 at 8PM (PDT). Once redeemed the games will become part of the players game library.
However, Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just stopping there. Play At Home is also the company’s commitment to Indie Gaming. As such, Sony is earmarking USD$10 million to support its indie developers. The fund looks to help indie developers in a time when a lot of the world’s economy is being disrupted. The company is looking to use the earmarked fund to help maintain and support indie studios who may be more affected by the disruptions. The company will make more details for the fund available soon.
If you are a gamer, it’s more than likely you already know who Double Eleven is. If you don’t, they are one of the UK’s largest game development studios. Yep, game development. They have produced a number of games including the Pixel Junk series on the PC, Goat Simulator on Xbox and Playstation) and the LEGO Harry Potter series.
“Malaysia’s high calibre talent and its great ecosystem between governments, universities and businesses are among key reasons for our entry. We’re excited to be taking our people first approach with this expansion and tapping into Malaysia’s highly capable local talents, hoping to become an integrated and active member of their burgeoning games industry,”
Lee Hutchinson, founder and CEO of Double Eleven
As the next step in their expansion, the studio has recently established an office in Bangsar South, Malaysia. Recruitment for the studio is currently ongoing. However, Double Eleven has officially opened its studios in Malaysia with the appointment of Ian Ng as the Studio Head of Double Eleven Malaysia. Ian Ng brings over 20 years of experience in game development. Previously, Ian worked at studios such as Tap4Fun, Ubisoft Singapore and LucasArts. He has been credited in a number of gaming titles including the Assassin’s Creed Franchise.
“I look forward to building a studio that embodies the same culture and values as the Double Eleven studio in the United Kingdom. After a number of years working in Bangkok and Singapore, I’m excited to make a positive impact on the fast-growing games industry in my home country of Malaysia”.
Ian Ng, Studio Head of Double Eleven Kuala Lumpur
The studio has been around since 2009 and was a Sony exclusive studio until 2012. The company has now grown and is expanding their global footprint to support more development. Having worked on big titles such as Little Big Planet Vita and the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the popular platformer LIMBO, the studio is now developing the popular game, Rust, for consoles, co-developing Minecraft Dungeons with Mojang and working with Paradox on Prison Architect.
“Malaysia has developed a vibrant and successful digital creative content industry over the past 15 years, with numerous international companies choosing to set up studios here. The current focus on realising the Digital Content Ecosystem Policy (DICE) reinforces Malaysia as the Heart of Digital ASEAN for animation and games content development.”
Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, Vice President, Digital Creative Content, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)
The establishment of Double Eleven’s new Malaysian studio comes after the announcement of Sony Interactive Worldwide and Lariat’s announcements late last year at the LEVEL UP Gaming conference in Kuala Lumpur. Double Eleven joins a growing number of game developers who are using Malaysia as a launch platform for their Asian presence. Malaysia’s government announced their Digital Content Ecosystem Policy which was spearheaded by the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and the Ministry of Technology. The new policy aims to make Malaysia the “Heart of Digital ASEAN”.
Sony has unveiled the final design for the upcoming PlayStation 5 controllers. The first thing to take note of: it’s not the DualShock 5. Sony is renaming its controllers to DualSense; and for good reason. The new controllers are pioneering new features we’ve not seen in any DualShock controller of the past. In fact, we may have not even seen them on any XBox or Nintendo controller to date.
The aesthetics of PlayStation controller of the past is also out the window with DualSense. The new DualSense controllers will now come with a two tone finish. A change that we are excited about. The new two tone finish puts a rather futuristic finish on what was once a drab single tone coloured design. However, we’ve seen Sony toy around with this idea in some of the later editions of the DualShock 4 controllers.
“DualSense marks a radical departure from our previous controller offerings and captures just how strongly we feel about making a generational leap with PS5. The new controller, along with the many innovative features in PS5, will be transformative for games – continuing our mission at PlayStation to push the boundaries of play, now and in the future. To the PlayStation community, I truly want to thank you for sharing this exciting journey with us as we head toward PS5’s launch in Holiday 2020. We look forward to sharing more information about PS5, including the console design, in the coming months.”
Jim Ryan, President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Of course, aesthetics aside, we know that Sony is focusing on the gamer experience when it comes to the PlayStation 5. In fact, the company explained, at length, the technology in the PS5 which includes a new focus on audio called Tempest 3D AudtioTech. The same considerations for immersive gaming came into play with designing the PS5’s DualSense controllers. The new controllers will be the first from Sony to feature haptic feedback. The adoption of haptic feedback technology will allow developers to enhance the gaming experience by increasing the level of detail when it comes to touch. Sony touts the grittiness of driving a car through mud as one of the examples.
In addition, Sony has also brought some change to the design of the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controllers. The L2 and R2 buttons will also have adaptive technology. Sony’s new adaptive triggers will allow developers to program finer details into the triggers. Resistance and perhaps multi stop functionality will probably come with the adaptive triggers. The angle of the triggers have also been adjusted for better ergonomics and to make space for the many components of the controller.
Sony has also replaced the Share button with a “Create” button. Sony claims that they are “…once again pioneering new ways for players to create epic gameplay content to share with the world..”. However, they didn’t elaborate on what they meant – yet. Sony has also included a built in mic array to make it easier for gamers to communicate. That said, the company said that the feature shouldn’t replace a proper gaming headset in the long term.
The new DualSense controller also features a redesign which takes the traditional DualShock design and throws it out the window. Gone are the rounded tops with conical protrusions. Instead, Sony has opted to go with a more boomerang like design that looks more ergonomic than previous designs. The company also reassures us that the controller is smaller than it looks. Another major change is the placement of the lightbar. Instead of being front and centre like the DualShock 4, the lightbar is now flanking the touchpad on either side. Smaller details such as the analogue control design has also been changed. According to PushSquare Sony has changed the analogue sticks to have a textured outer rim with a smoothed center section.
Overall, the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller builds upon the successful base of the DualShock 4. It also holds Sony’s intention of pushing “the boundaries of play” when it comes to their new console. The PS5 is set to launch later this year. To be specific – during Holiday 2020.
